


Ink Stained Wrists

by sarcastic_ace_artist



Series: Ink from the Soul [1]
Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:15:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21690802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcastic_ace_artist/pseuds/sarcastic_ace_artist
Summary: Lucy couldn't remembernothaving a soulmate.He’d been there since she was young enough to have memories, initially doodling something on his arms and legs. As they got older he’d started scrawling things in the messy, childlike handwriting of his since they were young, staining her wrist with ink and making her laugh.But truth be told they'd never actually met in real life.~~~Les had a soulmate. She'd always been there for him. And for that he talked to her constantly. Whether it be doodles or heartfelt messages, he kept writing to her.They’d never met each other in real life, but he knew she would be the one.
Relationships: Les Jacobs/Original Female Character(s), Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Series: Ink from the Soul [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1563949
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Ink Stained Wrists

**Author's Note:**

> So I churned this out in a few days, since the idea hit me out of nowhere.  
> If you see any mistakes please tell me so I can fix it. This is not beta read.

_Hi. My name's [REDACTED]_

_what? what's your name?_

_I can't write my name on here I think_

_o_ _h. that's too bad._

_I’m 5. how old are you?_

_I just turned 6_

_Oh happy birthday!_

* * *

Lucy couldn't remember _not_ having a soulmate.

He’d been there since she was young enough to have memories, initially doodling something on his arms and legs. As they got older he’d started scrawling things in the messy, childlike handwriting of his since they were young, staining her wrist with ink and making her laugh.

But truth be told they'd never actually met in real life.

New York was like that. You bumped into a lot of people in one day. It’s not like they would find each other on the sidewalk one day.

Lucy’s older brothers had soulmates. So did her older sister. Their relationships with each other were somewhat different than what she had with _her_ soulmate, or so she was told.

"Will I ever find my soulmate?" Lucy asked her eldest brother one day, when their other two siblings were out of the house, so there would be no interruptions. He’d been preparing dinner for them later, and nearly cut off a finger when she asked.

Morris frowned thoughtfully, told her he and his soulmate didn't like each other romantically and preferred staying friends, and told her to go ask Oscar.

Lucy waited to ask him when he was in the middle of driving her to school, so he wouldn’t be able to run away from her.

He almost crashed the car.

Oscar grimaced at the thought of her finding her soulmate, aptly told her she was too young, took back his words when he saw her about to cry, gave up trying to explain soulmates, and finally told her to go ask their sister.

And so Lucy went to her sister asking the same question she asked the boys, hoping to get an actual answer this time.

There were no near-accidents this time, and Lucy was relieved that her sister wasn’t a disaster like their brothers.

Betsy had simply smiled softly, raised her left wrist to show Lucy her own soulmate's recently written words— _I don't know you yet but I swear once I find you I'll never let go oh god was that too forward I'msosorry_ —and told her that these things always managed to work themselves out.

Lucy thought about this for a while, shrugged in response, and looked back at her last conversation with her soulmate.

He had left off telling her about his two older siblings finding their soulmates earlier on and being happy and how he wanted that too with her, and wanted to meet her soon.

She smiled and decided she was content with this. No need to rush fate after all. Things would happen when they did, and she would take it in stride.

* * *

_Since we can't write our names on here let's give each other a nickname_

_Uh well my friends call me Swords sometimes_

_Cool. you can call me daisy._

_Okay then. Nice to meet you daisy_

_Why do your friends call you swords?_

_Because I have a wooden toy sword I used to play with all the time. Why do your friends call you daisy?_

_I don't exactly have that many friends_

_WHAT?! WHY NOT? :0_

_I prefer hanging out with my older siblings and the kids at my school are really weird. Oh and daisies are my favorite flower_

* * *

Les had a soulmate. She'd always been there for him. And for that he talked to her constantly. Whether it be doodles or heartfelt messages, he kept writing to her.

They’d never met each other in real life, but he knew she would be the one.

She was also his reprieve from his admittedly repetitive life.

It went somewhat like this: _wake up, eat, school, homework, eat, sleep, repeat._

Okay maybe not really, but it felt so boring to him that any contact he had with Daisy left him more energized for the next day. She was sweet and kept telling to keep from working too hard.

Davey was constantly nagging him to finish his schoolwork, and Sarah kept telling him to finish his chores, but talking with Daisy—his soulmate's nickname—always managed to brighten his day. No matter how bad it was, talking with her just seemed to relieve him of his stress and

Davey found Jack when they moved to this area of New York, and Sarah found Katherine.

One day he asked Davey about finding Jack, and Davey stared at him in surprise, then gave him a wide grin.

“Les, I have to say meeting your soulmate is amazing,” he said, “It feels like things just click into place. It’s not like you finally feel complete, but your soulmate makes you want to stay with them. It’s like an ‘us against the world’ mentality.”

When he asked Sarah, she immediately went on a tangent about how finding Katherine felt, and she rambled on about clicking with her and developing a bond in just a few short hours that they both knew would be unbreakable.

“It was amazing. It felt like fireworks—Wait, not fireworks it was more like a soft, cozy feeling like coming home and us realizing that we would stay together forever and it was just the best. You know when you meet her that things will be great from then on out.”

He grimaced. While the idea did sound… _somewhat_ appealing, the way Sarah phrased it felt like it was a large event looming over him like a flashing neon sign, ready to fall and crush him at a moment’s notice.

He didn’t want that. Not yet anyway. He’d rather ease into the feeling slowly.

So yes, Les was still waiting on his special person. But for now, he was content with just being able to talk to her over skin using pens and simple words instead of rushing in blindly.

Not that this stopped him from asking Davey and Sarah about how they treated their soulmates when they first met.

* * *

_hey swords how old are you right now?_

_I'm 10. almost._

_oh same! my birthday's [REDACTED]_

_huh, guess we can't share our birthdays either_

_I wonder why we never tried when we were kids_

_idk. maybe it’s just one of those things we’ll find out when we meet each other._

_What about home addresses?_

_[REDACTED]_

_[REDACTED]_

_[REDACTED]_

_nope. sorry swords I guess we'll have to wait_

_well, I guess sharing address WOULD be too easy…_

* * *

She spoke with him for the next three years. Through bullies and disastrous family events, he was there, writing back to her. Lucy found herself anticipating every new line of words that popped up on her body. For this reason, she constantly carried a pen around his her pockets. If her clothes didn’t have any pockets, she would sew hidden pockets on them, much to the chagrin of her brothers and amusement of her sister.

* * *

_Happy birthday!_

_aw thanks Daisy!_

_It must be great being thirteen_

_I feel older_

_I don't turn thirteen until Spring_

_Isn't that next year?_

_Oh shut up_

* * *

It should be said that Les was no better within those three years.

He also carried multiple pens around, storing several at home in case the ink ever ran out. In his case, it truly was needed, since his conversations with Daisy tended to run for hours, meaning his pens ran out of ink constantly. Davey and Sarah were both tired and entertained of him. Tired because he was always writing something on his arm during conversations, but entertained because they always found something funny in his lovesick glances to his arms.

Les was not as entertained.

“You two were the same when you didn’t find _your_ soulmates yet.”

The answer he got to his outburst was blushing, stuttering, and blatant lies.

* * *

_holy shit we're growing up! this is gonna be awesome! we're gonna be the best fucking duo ever when we meet!_

_swords, no cursing!_

_oops, sorry!_

* * *

It was almost her thirteenth birthday.

When it came, she wrote to Swords for hours that night. He congratulated her, and seemed just as excited as she was about her birthday, coupled with the fact that they were both _finally teenagers_. She scribbled down an answer to his question, then she drew a smiley face to make him smile.

* * *

_how does it feel being a teenager Daisy?_

_honestly? it feels almost the same, but just a year older._

_aw c'mon!_

_nah, I'm just joking. it feels great._

_well now we HAVE to find each other soon, or else we'll be like 50 years old when we finally meet_

_I'll be wrinkly by then_

_and yet I'll love you all the same_

_That was actually very sweet_

* * *

They moved back to her older brothers' home area at the urging of the boy's estranged uncle with the help of another estranged family member who took care of them at the bare minimum, coupled with the fact that they needed to settle some things written in her brothers' parent's will.

Morris hated it. Oscar hated it. Betsy _really_ hated it (Which Lucy suspected was because she _despised_ "Mr. Weasel"). Lucy didn't know what to think.

She was moving to another school. At her old school she didn't have many friends. Here she would have to go through being the new girl. Again.

* * *

_I go to [REDACTED] academy_

_So no locations either. Wouldn’t it be weird if I was transferring to your school._

_lmao, maybe we'd run into each other_

_maybe. my sister also mentioned her soulmate also going to another school than us_

_wouldn't it be cool if one of my older brother's friends was her soulmate?_

* * *

Les tapped his pencil on his desk. He stared at the math problems in front of him, then leaned over to his friend Sally.

“Hey Sal, do you get these math problems?”

Sally bumped his shoulder. “Of course not. What kind of student do you take me for?” She dropped the volume of her voice to a whisper. “But Hattie says she’ll teach us how to do this stuff later. Don’t worry. You’ll be able to talk to your soulmate for now. Make sure you write her a thousand poems about how her hair feels like silk!”

Les blushed. “I don’t—I’m not gonna—It’s just— _Sally_!” He buried his face in his hands, embarrassed.

Sally only laughed and handed him his specially reserved “soulmate” pen.

* * *

_So what’re your older siblings like?_

_I have two older brothers and a sister_

_older or younger?_

_younger_

_I have an older brother and sister. they nag me a lot. anything interesting happen today?_

_My siblings went to visit our new house. my brothers got into a fight with some other boys there but my sister didn’t see anything because she was talking with the lawyer people_

_That’s funny. My older friends got into a fight too today._

_weird._

* * *

Lucy was scribbling furiously on her arm when a hand grasped her wrist gently and pried it away from its position above her arm.

“Lucy.”

_Huh?_

She looked up and met Betsy’s unamused glare. “Dinner.” Betsy pointed to her plate of food, which had begun to grow cold. Morris stared at her with a raised eyebrow and Oscar watched her as he chewed on his food.

“Uh, hi?” She chuckled nervously. “Sorry?”

Betsy plucked the pen from her hand—”Hey!” Lucy cried out as she reached out to grab it back— and placed it on the table, far from Lucy’s reach. She gestured towards her plate. “Eat. Then I’ll give you your pen back, okay?”

Lucy pouted but eventually conceded and began scooping food into her mouth. Swords was going to think she was so rude for cutting off in the middle of their conversation.

* * *

_hey do you think pigeons have feelings?_

_Swords I know you stole that from tumblr_

_how tf…?_

_My sister runs a blog on that platform, remember?_

_shit you’re too good for me_

_SWORDS_

_what?_

_Don’t curse!_

_:P_

* * *

Lucy grumbled as she ate her food. “ _Swords_ never gets scolded for talking to me,” she muttered to herself.

Les, meanwhile, was getting scolded by his siblings.

* * *

_You really think I’m too good for you?_

_you will always be too good for me_

_Well you’ll be too good for me too!_

_NO WAY YOU’RE THE BEST_

_NO YOU ARE_

* * *

“Les,” Sarah said, grabbing his wrist, “What are you doing?”

Les tugged his hand from her grip. “Talkin’ to Daisy. Why?” He started writing on his wrist again.

 _“Les.”_ David caught his hand, preventing him from being able to properly write his messages. “We know how much Daisy means to you, but you’ve been… _addicted_ to just talking with her for the past few weeks. You’ve been ignoring us during that time too.”

Les frowned. “I have?” He thought about the past few weeks. He could remember talking to Daisy, doing his schoolwork, talking to Daisy some more, taking some dinner up to his room so their conversations wouldn’t be disturbed, writing to her at school, not hearing his friends as he talked to her, coming home and talking to her some more.

…Oh. They _were_ right. He put the pen down.

He felt guilty now.

“I’m sorry,” he said meekly, hanging his head. “I didn’t realize. I guess I was just excited on finding Daisy other things slipped my mind.”

Sarah shook her head. “Les, talking to Daisy is fine. But we just need to know that you won’t throw everything else away because you want to talk to her. We’re important too you know.”

Davey nodded in agreement. “Besides, you need to hang out with your friends. Talk to her in moderation. I’m sure she’ll understand.”

* * *

_Hey so funny story Daisy_

_?_

_I may have been told by my siblings that I’m too addicted to talking to you_

_??? So have I. that’s weird_

_haha yeah. but maybe we should cut down on our conversations_

_We really should. This isn’t healthy behavior_

_see you soon?_

_Yeah. See you._

* * *

They moved near the beginning of summer. It took them about a week, since they had to transfer the luggage and set everything up. Luckily her siblings took care of most of the heavy lifting. Sometimes Lucy considered it lucky that she was the youngest. Other times, not so much since Morris and Oscar kept pestering her about her soulmate when she couldn’t run away because she was helping them carry stuff into the moving van. It took Betsy threatening to never bake her special bread rolls again in order to get them to draw back from prodding at her personal life and (mostly) leave her alone.

They still teased her though, nothing could change _that_.

* * *

_My friends think I'm whipped for you_

_I mean I’m kinda the same way_

_really?_

_Really. My brothers comment on it all the time._

* * *

“Hi there!”

Lucy turned around and immediately saw a girl standing in front of her, with another girl behind her. “Hi?”

The girl held out her hand. “I’m Sally,” she said brightly, waiting for her to take it. “You’re new here aren’t you? Well that’s good, our group needs more girls anyway.”

Lucy shook her hand. “You’re inviting me to your friend group?”

Sally pulled the redhead forward, ignoring Lucy’s question “This is Hattie, she’s my soulmate and I love her. We’re all gonna be great friends!” She pulled Lucy into the hug.

Lucy yelped and flailed her arms to regain balance. “Woah—”

Sally cackled. “We are going to have so much fun! Hey have you found your soulmate yet? What’s he like? Or she? Or they? I wanna know everything!” She grabbed Lucy and pulled her to their next class. “Your next class is English right? Ha, what am I asking? I snuck a peak at your schedule so I know your next class. Let’s go!”

Lucy gulped as she was dragged into a classroom.

“So have you written lengthy poems about how your soulmate’s eyes shine like a thousand stars?”

“Wh— _Sally_!” Lucy blushed furiously. 

Okay, she might have done that a few times but who was counting?

Sally snickered.

“That’s how my friend reacted when I asked him about _his_ soulmate!”

* * *

_are you having fun at your new school?_

_Yeah, it’s nice here. Especially this one girl and her soulmate. We all have the same English class together right now._

_cool! Talk to you later?_

_Of course!_

* * *

He was in History with James and Georgie. Sneaking a glance at the teacher to make sure she was focused on lecturing them about the Newsboys' strike of 1899, he dug around in his pencil pouch for his pen so he could write to Daisy.

* * *

_this class is getting boring to me_

_Didn’t you say we’d talk later?_

_it IS later_

_IT’S BEEN 20 MINUTES_

_yeah see? it's later!_

_…_

_daisy? Daisyyyy! ok ok we’ll talk later_

* * *

Lucy grumbled as she stalked out of her English class. She could hear Sally laughing from behind her.

In the middle of the lesson, Sally had started messing around and drew random patterns on her face. With a pink marker no less.

She needed to wash this off before lunch ended.

* * *

“You have ink on your face Les.”

“What?” Les looked up at his two friends. “I do?”

James poked his cheek. “Right here. Just appeared too. Seems like your soulmate either had a small accident, wanted to annoy you, or someone drew on her face.

Les rubbed at his cheek. “Huh.”

Georgie grinned. “Well put it this way Les. You’ll know it’s her if you see her today.” He gestured to the pen Les was now holding his hand. “You should write to her. Maybe she’s in this very room right now.”

Les rolled his eyes. “Georgie, c’mon. It’s not like _that’s_ going to happen. It’s too much of a cliché.” He swung his bag over his shoulder and entered the hallway, James and Georgie at his sides.

"Let's not get too ahead of ourselves here" James said, "It's actually been proven that a lot of soulmate meetings are _really_ similar to those movie clichés you're talking about."

They entered the cafeteria and sat at their usual table. 

He glanced around the cafeteria. There weren’t _too_ many students here. If Daisy wandered in he could easily find her.

His gaze swept past a noisy group, some students setting a table on fire, a girl with pink pen markings on her right cheek talking with Sally and Hattie, a fist fight happening, a group of three students making out—

His eyes widened.

He looked back to the girl with pen on her cheek. He looked at Sally and Hattie talking to her.

"Holy _shit_." Les fumbled for his pen.

He needed to get a message out. _Now._

_DAISY do you have pink pen markings on your face?_

_yeah…? why?_

* * *

She’d only felt the tingling sensation a few seconds ago, but she had been busy finding a pen that could write on skin so she took a few seconds to read the new message.

_Look up_

Lucy stared at the message on her forearm and fingered the pen in her hand for a few seconds before looking up from her ink stained wrist.

She saw…the cafeteria. Some of the students were walking around and talking to each other, but she knew that they weren’t who she was looking for.

It took her a moment before she spotted the boy looking at her from across the room, pen in hand, with writing visible on his own ink stained wrist.

And then it was just the two of them. They were in their own little world. Everything faded away.

He started moving towards her.

Everything came rushing back in. Lucy dropped her pen and ran towards him. He started running towards her too.

Everyone cleared out of the way, giving them knowing looks and grins.

They met each other in the middle of the room, where he lifted her up and spun her around.

It felt like forever until they separated.

Lucy, now feeling flustered, stepped back to take a look at him.

He also seemed flustered.

She extended a hand towards him.

"Hi," she said breathlessly, "I'm Lucy. Lucy Williams."

He took it with a grin. "Les Jacobs. I've been waiting to meet you since forever."

**Author's Note:**

> How was it? I think I really like this one. Leave a comment or kudos!


End file.
